Bonds thicker than blood
by xSimplyTarrynx
Summary: Sometimes, there are bonds that can never be broken by petty things: money, drugs, alcohol. Some bonds can only be broken with bloodshed. But the things about these bonds is that they are thicker than blood. One-Shot. R&R!


**Tarryn: Welcome to my first NOES Fanfiction! I might turn this into a series of one-shots about bonds if I get ideas for it and enough people like it and want to see more. I hope you enjoy! Reviews make me smile want to write more. Oh, and remember to stay awake…;D**

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_Sleep._

As with all guilty pleasures, the instant you give into it, the pleasure outweighs the pain by leaps and bounds. It feels so good that you only want to keep going until it consumes you, like taking in as much oxygen as you can after you've been unable to breathe, or engorging upon water when you've been outside for too long on a hot, cloudless summer day.

But then you come to your senses.

_No, no, NO. Not tonight… I need to stay awake… _

_Have to stay awake… For them._

An inward battle soon starts, as your mind fights with your body, a conflict that seems to encompass you in such a way it becomes a part of you; so much so that it becomes who you are. It is no longer your mind and your body, two separate entities. There is only you.

There is only good and evil.

_I can't do this…_

_Yes, you can._

I struggle to see the bright side in either of these situations; either way I would slowly lose my mind until it was a black hole, devoid of anything but terrifying darkness, as all of my worst fears become my new frightening, self-destructing reality. It was a terrible thought, and I honestly didn't know which I'd prefer less: A quick but agonizing death after a night of torture or slowly losing sight of reality until I begin to contemplate whether or not my life is really meaningful.

Maybe it wasn't.

But I knew whose lives **were **meaningful, whose lives had all the value in the world.

Whose lives I had to protect.

Realizing this, a flare of fiery passion surges within me, and I get up, despite my bodies deepest desires to lie down and get just the slightest amount of rest.

But I knew that was completely and utterly out of the question, at least until I left this horrible place.

I rush down the hall, panic setting in as it dawned on I that if I was this tired, my younger sisters would have to be just as tired, if not more. I bite down hard on my lips as I resisted the temptation of screaming out for them. If I did, it would alert my mom and step-dad. And if my sisters were already too far gone… I shake off the ominous thoughts as I run down the hall, my breaths coming out in short, fractured gasps. I taste blood, the coppery taste bursting into my mouth like a geyser as I anxiously verify the verdict that I had already formed in my frantic, anxiety-ridden mind.

_My little sisters weren't on their beds._

I couldn't resist letting out a gasp, as tears immediately obscured my vision. "No, they can't be gone. He-he couldn't have taken them. He won't! He won't!" I shout the last part, and bring my hand across my mouth as I grit my teeth angrily, my other hand clenching into a fist and slamming into the door-frame as I take a few quiet, quick steps, and throw my whole body across the room, landing on the bottom half of the bunk beds that were positioned in the southern-most corner of the fluorescent pink room. It wasn't my first choice of color, but it wasn't my room, so I raised no complaints and had no reason to complain. The room had large murals of perfectly stenciled, violet butterflies across it, and the memory of when my little sisters had gotten them replayed in my head like a bad commercial as I quickly try to close my tear-filled hazel eyes, shutting them so tightly that it physically hurt, but it was a necessary pain to get my mind to focus and let me sleep.

My wish was granted soon enough, and it wasn't long before I began to dream.

My eyes open to see nothing but blackness in the sparsely lit room, with just enough light to see in front of me. I feel around the hollow, empty shell of a room blindly, unable to find any landmarks in the darkness covering the room like furious, foreboding storm clouds. After a few moments of roaming, I hit something hard and metal. Grasping the open air to feel for it again, I am soon able to make out the impressions of a door and its handles. I open the door carefully, nervously looking around for signs of Freddy. Noting his absence in my peripheral vision, I take a few steps as I slink my way across the boiler room, touching one of the railings as I descend the staircase. I instantly find it hot and unsafe to touch as it burns my fingertips, leaving an angry red mark on my skin. Hissing as quietly as a person can, I pace my way down the stairs, going fast as I could, but if he hadn't found my sisters yet, I couldn't risk myself becoming a victim of Freddy's razor claws before I found them. I crept past room after room, taking hesitant glances into each room to see if I found them or their bloodied, mangled corpses. If that's what I found, then there was no doubt that I would be next.

But I found nothing.

That's when I heard the screaming.

Not bothering with being quiet this time, I run forward as fast as my feet can carry me, my socks crackling with embers as the friction increased with every adrenaline filled step I took. My heart had a staccato drum beat and my hands were shaking like a vibrating chair as I approached, my upper lip quavering. _What am I even doing here?_ I wonder. _I can't help them even if I tried, I'm too scared. _My feet stood at a stand-still, and I narrow my eyes aggressively. _What are you saying? Just because you're here, it changes everything? What happened to the girl who wanted to protect her sisters with everything she had? She's still there, isn't she?_ I nod. _Then go in there and fight, you coward! At least try to get them to wake up; you can do that, can't you? _I send up a hopeful prayer to God, though whether it made it to him from… wherever this place was, I had a right to be doubtful.

Charging forward with no real plan, I burst through the opening, taking an offensive pose while shoving down the butterflies in my stomach and holding back the scream that was fighting its way up my vocal chords, so close to coming forth that opening my mouth just a millimeter would have let it escape. But I refuse to let it happen. I was the protector here, and I had to be dauntless if I was going to get anyone out alive.

But no one was inside the room.

At least if you didn't count the severed head, the ribbons of skin, and the innards that littered its hot aluminum floor.

I couldn't help it this time; I screamed.

It was a pitiful scream that ricocheted around the four walls of the room, now feeling like they were closing in around me like a blanket, draping itself over me until I was all alone with just the body parts to keep me company. Would I end up talking to that severed head? Would it become like a human friend to me as I slowly made my way into the madness that was already chipping away at my sanity every second that I stared at this obscenity before me?

The next caterwaul drove through the hot, steamy air like a knife, making a high-pitched whistling sound that broke me out of my trance, and I gave my head a vigorous shake as I take a look around.

_It won't be long now._

Hurrying to get as far away from the place where I screamed as possible, I follow my gut and the sputtering sounds where the steam seemed to be talking as it hissed and sputtered out of the pipes that weaved through the ceilings and all around me like cobwebs, tempting me to come closer because the ominous, intriguing pattern it had, but It was all just a trap.

A trap that I was walking straight into.

Continuing the doomed path I was walking, I take a sharp detour into one of the rooms as a series of whimpers and snivels started to radiate from one of the openings in the large hallway. "Gabby? Macy?! You guys! Where are you?" I shout, just as I hear the pounding of footsteps behind me.

"You're not going to be able to find them if you're dead, princess."

I flinch at the sound of the sound of the familiar voice behind me, his gruff tone sounding like there was a smirk plastered on the horribly burned, devilish face. There probably was. It wouldn't surprise me one bit. It would be a lie if I said that I didn't freeze, though, that my heart didn't stop, or my ears didn't ring with the sounds of silence because everything after that moment virtually stopped.

"Aw, what's wrong, piglet?" Freddy breaks through the silence with a dark chuckle, "Disappointed your little game of hide-and-seek is up?" He lashes out for me, and I leap out of the way quickly, making sure he didn't grab me with his blood-splattered talons as I ran.

I would_ not_ let him get him or my sisters.

I U-turn harshly, nearly running into him, but he only scrapes me skin with his claws as he passes and then hurries to catch up with me.

"Not today, Krueger." I snap and race back to where I had heard the snivels before, which were now sounding like the choked, terrified sobs of children. "Gabby, Macy!" I holler as I charge into the opening where I spotted the two girls cowering in the corner, holding each other as if their lives depended on it.

I could already hear Freddy's pounding footsteps, echoing down the hall in an enraged pursuit.

Their lives might not depend on each other, but they depended on me.

I hastily make my way over to them, and enclose them tightly within my lithe frame. 'You guys have to _wake up!_" I exclaim, as my eyes futilely stare at the two, my eyes making me look like trapped animal who wanted nothing more than to escape.

Then again, that's exactly what we were here.

They nod back at me, and close their eyes, as if falling asleep here would send them back into their own dreams, full of their delicate, violet butterflies and flowers.

There were other options to consider than their futile trials, ways that my friends said had woken them up, and I tried the first one that came to mind: Self-inflicting wounds.

_But they're just kids… Cutting them would hurt them unnecessarily. Think! What do kids do to hurt themselves?_

Freddy's chuckle ricocheted through the room.

"I found you now, piggies."

_HURRY!_

… _I got it!_

"You guys, pinch yourselves." I say, my commanding sounding voice not quite working with the fear that was making it shake and squeak. They look at me hesitantly, as if wondering if such a ridiculous thing could work. Freddy's sharp razors graze my back, making me screech out in pain. "Do it! I'm serious!" I yell now, my eyes no longer fearful, but looking very determined; and that's when I get most protective. They nod, and pinch themselves, yelping out at the sudden pain.

It gave a whole new meaning to the phrase: 'Pinch me, I'm dreaming.'

As soon as they begin to disappear, I turn around slowly…

And I was met with a harsh, cruel slap in the face.

Scratch that: A **razor-gloved** slap in the face.

I scream in pain as I smash into the wall, and have no time to recover as I am lifted up by my neck, my eyes slamming shut as I feel the pain of razors once again digging into my skin. I squirmed as my legs dangled uselessly down at my sides. I try to get a good kick, but each time he squeezes just a little tighter on my neck, causing me to stop any motion as my lungs scream for air. "You're going to pay for that, you brat!" He snarls as he starts to ease the razors through my skin easily, as if it was butter. But it was stopped when I placed a good knee into his rib-cage, causing him to release me. I wheeze on the ground helplessly, unable to make the most of my small victory. I hear him reach for me, but it soon falls onto deaf ears. I see his menacing grin and unsheathes glove, aimed straight for my heart, but I do not flinch.

I become still as stone.

All I know is that I start thinking about all of the good times I had with my sisters, how we had laughed together over things that only we knew, smile together as we sang songs that we created, and danced together, oh how we danced; Silly and recklessly, without a care in the world. I remember all of the jokes shared as we stayed awake all through the night to try to evade death. Cheaters, we called ourselves. And then of course my little sisters would have to sing "Cheater, Cheater pumpkin eater," every time it was spoken. I remember how we cried when our parents split, cried as we faced the anger of a bitter parent, and cried when we had first faced this man on our second night in Springwood.

But we always had each other.

Except now.

Now, the demon that had plagued us ever since we had moved here had finally caught me. His razors were entering into me, but I am so petite that they slice easily through me and you see them come out the other side. He had gotten what he wanted, a soul that he could greedily use to gain more power, tearing my life from me just for fun, like a game you would play; except in this game, there was only one winner, and it wasn't me. I never had a chance.

As I collapsed onto the floor, I hear his satisfied voice as it rings through the dense atmosphere, and my eyes start seeing spots briefly until they see nothing but blackness. Blood oozes and flows out of my body slowly, as it cradles me in a pool of the thick, distinctly smelling liquid that seemed to bring him even more sick pleasure.

But the liquid was not as thick as something, something that even Freddy Krueger seemed to have forgotten: and it was the reason I had just sacrificed myself for my sisters.

The bond between family.

And that bond is thicker than any blood.


End file.
